


as long as you live, so will i

by thenewdarling



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! - All Media Types, Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-12
Updated: 2020-06-12
Packaged: 2021-03-04 00:33:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 706
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24684640
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thenewdarling/pseuds/thenewdarling
Summary: Ryo is hit by a car, and for a brief moment, the Spirit remembers everything.Because apparently my new shtick is angsty Yu-Gi-Oh short fic. The Spirit remembers what he and the Pharaoh are fighting over, long enough to keep himself from giving up.
Kudos: 5





	as long as you live, so will i

Two spirits, trapped in solid gold, lost in time.

There was so little of them left that they didn't even remember why they were fighting. Neither of them even remembered their own names. 

Just that the final showdown must come. It could only end when one held all seven of the Millennium Items.

Ryo Bakura lies motionless on the road, his life blood leaking onto the cold tarmac. 

A random happenstance. No mystical duels, no schemes. He just, didn't look both ways before crossing the road, and the driver didn't look back to help. Careening off into the distance.

What an undignified way to go.

The Pharaoh says the difference between him and the Spirit of the Ring, is that the Pharaoh cares about his host. And that's true, to a point. The Spirit - barely clawing onto life for millennia - does not feel sentimentality for this boy.

However, Ryo is not like the many others who had held this Ring. 

The two of them are connected somehow, through the aeons. And for some reason, while lesser beings are snuffed out under his possession, Ryo's soul will burn and burn and give him life eternal. It takes a lot of energy to carry all of the Spirit's hatred, and Ryo has a seeming infinity to give.

But the Spirit is tired. To have held on for this long. To not even remember why he is so angry. Angry at the world. Angry at the Pharaoh. Just looking at him - his smug, entitled countenance. The privilege. It makes the fury bubble up inside him.

Ryo coughs, splutters. He reaches out, in his mind. "Save us," he thinks, to the Spirit.

And the Spirit is torn. For a moment, he spies an early release. If Ryo dies, would he be free? Would that be enough to break the curse that holds him in this space?

He doubts it. But he's so tired.

Ryo clutches at his chest where he's bleeding. He can feel the Ring burning into him, as it always does.

And, in that moment, the Spirit remembers - fleetingly. 

A vision of his past.

What it took, to create his anger. Why his hatred had been strong enough, that it had survived being locked away in the magical ring for 5000 years. Why the Pharaoh could not be allowed the Items.

The Thief King. Not his name, but his title. And like "the Pharaoh", not one he chose. One that was given to him. But his was not a blessing - it was a brand on his neck. The only survivor of the Massacre of Kul Elna, left to fend for himself in the desert.

The Millennium Items held his family. Everyone he'd ever known.

A few hundred people. How many more than that had he killed? How many more still had he left to rot and go mad in the Shadow Realm?

But if he died here, everything would be for nothing. And in remembering, he was traumatised all over again. He could feel Ryo reaching out, to comfort him. But there could be no release.

Hundreds of people, his whole village, his whole family. 

It is a powerful magic that is forged in human sacrifice. His kin, the village of Kul Elna. 

They were the ones that were always screaming in his head, he realised. Trapped in a moment of pain as the Egyptian kings melted their bones and skin in the liquid gold and forged their trinkets. The Ring around his neck. How many of his loved ones were still trapped in that Ring?

No. While they were trapped there, he would be a coward to leave them and shuffle off this mortal coil.

The Ring glowed as he shrouded Ryo Bakura, wore him like a robe. The bleeding stopped, held in by his magic, and he stood up.

"You need a hospital," he said. "And for the time being, I need you."

By the time he reached the hospital and dropped Ryo in front of the medical staff, the memories had left him again.

All he knew, was that he'd only feel relief when he had all the Millennium Items. Whatever it took, he had to collect all seven. 

Maybe then, the screaming would stop.


End file.
